Atom Moore: Second Nature

Still life and product photographer Atom Moore has built a career in macro photography, taking extreme close-ups of small subjects to capture the minute details that are typically missed by the unaided eye. Moore’s fascination with the mechanical nature of watches has led him to focus his lens primarily on timepieces for more than a decade. Beyond straightforward documentation, macro photography enables the viewer to consider an object from a new perspective. Through this process and using digital editing, Moore has developed an artistic practice in which he makes the miniature appear larger than life, while creating new compositions of juxtaposed images. 

Moore considers watches and clocks to be small mechanical works of art with a deep connection to elements of nature. In his recent series Second Nature, Moore focuses on the anatomy of plants in Wave Hill’s living collection and combines the imagery of flora with shots of timeless watches to create a correlation between them. As an artist, he is drawn to the shapes, textures, and patterns in plants as they remind him of intricate handmade watch parts. In works such as Strawflower No. 2, for example, a daisy blossom becomes the main balance wheel at the heart of the watch’s movement. In Axis, complex components of a multi-rotational escapement are delicately laid onto the pistil and stamens of a flower, which are essential for plant reproduction. Through this project of closely observing the garden with his camera, Moore captures evidence of nature’s deep design and constant transformation. 

Another aspect underlying Moore’s work is the ongoing investigation of our understanding of time itself. The marking of time as discrete units of measure is a human construct, while plants in the garden follow their own circadian rhythms and seasonal cycles of growth and decay. The title Second Nature is a play on art imitating nature, as well as the perpetual motion of the gears inside a watch that slowly and methodically tick away the seconds. By contrasting watch movements with plant structures, Moore reimagines our conception of the elements of timekeeping and the dubious distinctions we make between the natural and the mechanical. 

Wave Hill House is wheelchair-accessible. There is an accessible, ground-level entrance at the front of the building with a power-assist door. The restroom on the ground level is all-gender and ADA-compliant. Additional ADA-compliant restrooms are available on the lower level, which can be accessed by elevator.